Suspects Indicted in Palestinian Teen’s Murder

The 29-year-old Israeli prime suspect, who was charged along with two minors with the abduction and murder of the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, covers his face as he leaves the courtroom on July 17, 2014 at the Jerusalem district court. (GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)

Three Israelis were indicted in the murder earlier this month of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir, JTA reports. The three male suspects, who have been identified only as a 29-year-old from the Adam settlement outside Jerusalem and two 16-year-olds from Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem, were charged with the murder and kidnapping of 16-year-old Abu Khdeir and other crimes.

The suspects had already confessed to the grisly murder, in which they abducted and burned Abu Khdeir alive, and described it as an act of revenge for the murders of Israeli teens Gilad Shaar, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16 and Eyal Yifrach, 19. According to the indictment, Khdeir was beaten until he was unconscious and then set on fire.

Khdeir’s murder sparked riots across East Jerusalem and in other parts of Israel. An Israeli police office was suspended for beating Khdeir’s Palestinian-American 15-year-old cousin, Tariq Abu Khdeir, during one of the demonstrations.